Toorak mansion sells for $7.8m despite neighbour slicing off land

Marc Pallisco

15 Yarradale Road, Toorak

A Toorak vendor has sold the property next door to his own for $7.8 million after buying it less than three years earlier for $6.8 million then slicing off a 500-square-metre portion for himself.

The recent sale of 15 Yarradale Road – one of only a handful in the ritzy suburb with direct river access – is another signal of the strength in Melbourne's most exclusive suburb, which now carries a median house price of just over $2.5 million, according to Domain Group data.

Last week, a home at 209A Kooyong Road, on 2300 square metres, sold for nearly $8 million while a four-bedroom French-chateau style mansion at 1B Grong Grong Court traded for more than $5.1 million – both to China-based investors.

The four-bedroom house at 15 Yarradale Road is on a substantial 2500-square-metre block able to accommodate a mooring wharf. It sold to an Elsternwick couple in May following a campaign managed by Rodney Morley Persichetti director Rodney Morley.

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Yarradale Road made headlines recently following the Stonnington City Council and Melbourne Water issuing enforcement orders on members of the Simonds family, of home builder fame, and who own three houses in the street.

Locals have accused the Simonds of using public space around the Yarra River as a "personal playground". Last year, Mark Simonds was ordered to demolish a riverside entertainment area, outbuildings and colonnaded gardens illegally added to his triple-storey home.

His parents, Gary and Pamela Simonds, were also ordered to demolish an outdoor area and pool in the riverside backyard of a new four-storey home developed at No. 21.